Sacramento lawmakers certainly made a lot of new laws this year, sending the most bills to the governor’s office in more than a decade. In all, legislators sent 1,217 bills for Gov. Jerry Brown to mull over. He ended up signing 1,016 into law that will go into effect on January 1, 2019. If my […]

You certainly don’t need me telling you that the past three years of these prodigiously destructive wildfires are unprecedented chapters in California history. The last week has seen a series of one ominous event after another. An insurance risk-rating firm estimates that the Camp Fire in Butte County, where at least 81 people have died […]

As I write this the death count in the Butte County Camp Fire stands at 64 but is climbing. Just 24 hours after the conflagration started, heavy smoke had already drifted to the North Coast and Bay Area. After its fourth day it was declared to be the most destructive in state history. In a […]

I’ve said this before but it needs to be said again, it’s never a good idea for elected officials to pick a fight with folks they shouldn’t really be picking fights with. But that’s exactly what happened this week at a public meeting held in Willits by the Board of Supervisors’ Cannabis Ad Hoc Committee. […]

Appears I somewhat influenced the county into somewhat enforcing its cannabis ordinance. At the Sept 11 BOS meeting, Planning and Building Dept. staff delivered a report on enforcement. Highlights from the report noted that: • 50 percent of all complaints P&B received are for cannabis-related activities. • 223 cannabis complaints to-date from 177 locations. • […]

It was almost too easy. The precision-like fleecing of the People of the State of California, that is. As predicted here late last year, when the Northcoast fires were still smoldering, I said there would be a historically epic showdown between the Big Three (PG&E and the other two electrical monopolies, Southern California Edison and […]

As we discussed here several weeks ago, I said I’d be keeping both eyes open in the event the on again-off again, on again-off again proposal to tax public drinking water was resurrected in the closing days of the current legislative year that occurs on August 31.

There’s an educational study in contrasts between two-thirds of the Emerald Triangle when looking at their respective cannabis ordinances and the policies and actions relative to enforcement. The counties of Humboldt and Mendocino stand in stark contrast to one another in their approaches and implementation of their respective ordinances legalizing marijuana. Humboldt County clearly had […]

Last week’s column discussed marijuana legalization and some of the adverse consequences, especially economic consequences, it’s having on local communities such as Laytonville. I argued that there are one too many sets of regulations with the state and local governments each issuing their own regulatory frameworks. I said, “One must be eliminated. And there’s really […]